Hearing aids with adjustable directivity
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relates to hearing aids. A hearing aid includes a plurality of microphones configured to receive an initial sound signal and convert the initial sound signal into an electrical signal; a processor configured to process the electrical signal and generate a control signal; and a speaker configured to convert the control signal into a hearing aid sound signal. To process the electrical signal and generate the control signal, the processor is configured to: adjust a directivity of the initial sound signal received by the plurality of microphones, so that a sound intensity of a first sound signal from a direction of the speaker in the initial sound signal is always greater than or always less than a sound intensity of a second sound signal from other directions around.
1 . A hearing aid, comprising:
a plurality of microphones configured to receive an initial sound signal and convert the initial sound signal into an electrical signal, wherein the plurality of microphones includes a first microphone and a second microphone that are spaced apart from the first microphone;
a processor configured to process the electrical signal and generate a control signal; and
a speaker configured to convert the control signal into a hearing aid sound signal, wherein to process the electrical signal and generate the control signal, the processor is configured to:
adjust a directivity of the initial sound signal received by the plurality of microphones, so that a sound intensity of a first sound signal from a direction of the speaker in the initial sound signal is always greater than or always less than a sound intensity of a second sound signal from other directions around; wherein
the sound intensity of the first sound signal from the direction of the speaker in the initial sound signal collected by the plurality of microphones is always greater than the sound intensity of the second sound signal from other directions in the environment, the processor is configured to:
extract the first sound signal from the speaker in the initial sound signal;
subtracted a portion of the first sound signal from a second electrical signal corresponding to a sound signal obtained by any one or both of the first microphone or the second microphone to obtain the second sound signal from other directions in the environment;
generate a control signal based on the second sound signal, the control signal being transmitted to the speaker, the control signal being converted into the hearing aid sound signal; or
the sound intensity of the first sound signal from the direction of the speaker in the initial sound signal collected by the plurality of microphones is always less than the sound intensity of the second sound signal from other directions in the environment, the processor is configured to:
generate a control signal based on the second sound signal, the control signal being transmitted to the speaker, and the control signal being converted into the hearing aid sound signal.
2 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , further comprising:
a supporting structure configured to set up on a user's head and accommodate the speaker, so that the speaker is located near the user's ear without blocking an ear canal.
3 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein an angle between a line connecting the first microphone and the second microphone and a line connecting the first microphone and the speaker is not greater than 30°, and the first microphone is farther away from the speaker relative to the second microphone.
4 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the first microphone, the second microphone and the speaker are arranged in line.
5 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the speaker is arranged on a midperpendicular line of a line connecting the first microphone and the second microphone.
6 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein an adjusted directivity of the initial sound signal obtained after adjusting the directivity of the initial sound signal is a heart-like shape.
7 . The hearing aid of claim 6 , wherein a pole of the heart-like shape faces towards the speaker and a zero point of the heart-like shape faces away from the speaker; and/or
a zero point of the heart-like shape faces towards the speaker and a pole of the heart-like shape faces away from the speaker.
8 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein an adjusted directivity of the initial sound signal obtained after adjusting the directivity of the initial sound signal is a first 8-like shape, a first axis of the first 8-like shape is consistent with a midperpendicular line of a line connecting the first microphone and the second microphone, so that the speaker is located in a direction of the first axis, and the direction of the first axis is a direction in which the plurality of microphones are least or zero sensitive to the adjusted sound signal in the directivity of the first 8-like shape; or
an adjusted directivity of the initial sound signal obtained after adjusting the directivity of the initial sound signal is a second 8-like shape, a second axis of the second 8-like shape is consistent with the midperpendicular line of the line connecting the first microphone and the second microphone, so that the speaker is located in a direction of the second axis, and the direction of the second axis is a direction in which the plurality of microphones are most sensitive to the adjusted sound signal in the directivity of the second 8-like shape.
9 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the first microphone receives a first initial sound signal, the second microphone receives a second initial sound signal, and a distance between the first microphone and the speaker is different from a distance between the second microphone and the speaker.
10 . The hearing aid of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on the distance between the first microphone and the speaker and the distance between the second microphone and the speaker, a proportional relationship of the hearing aid sound signal in the first initial sound signal and second initial sound signal.
11 . The hearing aid of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
obtain a signal average power of the first initial sound signal and the second initial sound signal; and
determine, based on the proportional relationship and the signal average power, the second sound signal in the initial sound signal from other directions around.
12 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid further comprises a filter configured to:
feedback a portion of the electrical signal corresponding to the hearing aid sound signal to a signal processing loop to filter out the portion of the electrical signal corresponding to the hearing aid sound signal.
13 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the speaker comprises:
a first vibration assembly electrically connected to the processor, the first vibration assembly being configured to receive the control signal, and generate a vibration based on the control signal; and
a shell coupled with the first vibration assembly, the shell being configured to transmit the vibration to the user's face.
14 . The hearing aid of claim 13 , wherein the hearing aid sound signal comprises: a bone conduction sound wave generated based on the vibration, and/or a second air conduction sound wave generated by the first vibration assembly and/or the shell when generating and/or transmitting the vibration.
15 . The hearing aid of claim 14 , wherein the hearing aid further comprises: vibration sensors configured to obtain a vibration signal of the speaker;
the processor is further configured to eliminate the vibration signal from the initial sound signal.
16 . The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the first microphone receives a first initial sound signal, the second microphone receives a second initial sound signal, and the processor is further configured to: perform a time delay processing or a phase shift processing on the first initial sound signal to obtain a first processed sound signal; perform a differential processing on the processed sound signal and the second initial sound signal to obtain a differential signal; and adjusting the differential signal, so that the sound intensity from the direction of the speaker in the initial sound signal always greater or always less than the sound intensity of the second sound signal from other directions around when receiving the initial sound signal.
17 . The hearing aid of claim 6 , wherein the first microphone receives a first initial sound signal, the second microphone receives a second initial sound signal, and the processor is further configured to:
convert the first initial sound signal into a first frequency domain signal, and convert the second initial sound signal into a second frequency domain signal;
determine, based on positions of the first microphone and the second microphone and/or a distance between the first microphone and the second microphone, directivity data toward the speaker and directivity data away from the speaker in the first frequency domain signal and the second frequency domain signal, so that the plurality of microphones have a directivity toward the speaker, and the directivity is a heart-like shape.
18 . The hearing aid of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
perform a phase transformation on the second frequency domain signal based on sampling frequencies of the first initial sound signal and the second initial sound signal, the positions of the first microphone and the second microphone, and/or the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone, so that the second frequency domain signal have a same phase with the first frequency domain signal.